Activision faces labor suit

Former employee files suit against publisher alleging violation of overtime laws, wrongful termination.

Two years ago, the "EA Spouse" scandal hit Electronic Arts, leading to a class-action lawsuit that the largest American game publisher settled out of court in October of 2005. Now the second-largest American publisher faces a similar fight, as a former Activision employee this month filed suit against the company for violations of state and federal labor laws.

In the suit, a former Activision employee accuses the publisher of consistently violating labor laws for the last three years by not properly paying employees for the hours they worked. The employee contends that Activision violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by knowingly misclassifying some of its employees as exempt from overtime pay and minimum wage laws.

That violation she says is compounded by the publisher's failure to provide its employees with an accurate record of their hours worked, adding that the company was engaging in unfair competition by underpaying members of its workforce. She is also suing the company for wrongfully terminating her when she brought these complaints to her superiors. The employee is asking for unpaid wages with interest for current and former employees, the legal costs associated with filing the suit, and punitive damages.

"As a direct result of the unlawful and wrongful termination by defendant employers, [the plaintiff] has suffered substantial losses in earnings and job benefits, and has suffered humiliation and extreme and severe mental anguish and emotional distress normally associated with wrongful termination," the suit reads.

The former employee did not specify the amount of money sought, but depending on how many people join the suit, a victory could cost Activision millions of dollars. The settlement in the suit stemming from the EA Spouse controversy cost Electronic Arts $14.9 million.

This is the second suit against Activision to come to light this week. A shareholder of the publisher is also suing a number of its current and former executives, claiming they backdated stock options. As of press time, Activision representatives had not returned requests for comment on either lawsuit.

38 Comments

  • masiisam

    Posted Jul 31, 2006 3:03 pm PT

    Great... more expensive games..

  • DarknessOfFate1

    Posted Jul 31, 2006 1:43 pm PT

    Who really cares? Whatever the settlement will be it wont mean jack for a compnay like activison.

  • grimzeus

    Posted Jul 31, 2006 7:53 am PT

    We bring you more... because we pay our employees less!

  • superbrett2000

    Posted Jul 30, 2006 1:07 am PT

    This is just one ex-staffer who probably sucked at her job. If it were 5 ex-staffers, that would be very different.
    -----------

    Unless it was one ex staffer suing on behalf of a number of staff members.

    At any rate, should Activision be found guilty, it doesnt matter if its one or 100 employees who got screwed. In such a case, they broke the law and should be punished accordingly.

  • willripyouanew1

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 5:45 pm PT

    God Bless America !!

  • Lisandro_v22

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 1:15 pm PT

    I would like to suffer severe mental anguish. where do i sign?

  • axia_777

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 12:54 pm PT

    I hope Activision losses just like EA lost their two cases (America and Canada). Maybe if enough of these fool companies get sued for huge money they will stop abusing workers and pay them the loot they are worth. That of they will move all these video game jobs to India, Korea, China, and other such countries where you get paid crap money, get abusing hours, no OT pay, and don't complain or you would lose your job with no ability to sue the company that screwed you over.

  • rasds

    Posted Jul 24, 2006 8:26 am PT

    They should run a investagation about this

  • dryden555

    Posted Jul 24, 2006 6:59 am PT

    This is just one ex-staffer who probably sucked at her job. If it were 5 ex-staffers, that would be very different.

  • Briantb_2008

    Posted Jul 23, 2006 12:05 pm PT

    Well Activison better have good lawyers.

  • woj

    Posted Jul 23, 2006 10:59 am PT

    Bottom line is these people that are complaining about not getting overtime went into the job knowing that they were going to be salaried employees, hence no overtime.

    Anyone taking a job in this business not expecting to to work long, long hours is in for a very rude awakening.

  • Sidrat2004

    Posted Jul 23, 2006 10:33 am PT

    You think if they signed a contract stating that at certain times during the development cycle that unpaid overtime would be necessary then anyone who signed this type of contract wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

    Not having worked in this kind of field I wouldn't know what the standard contract would include.

    Paying workers for their time worked sounds fair and reasonable. Expecting people to work a 70+ hour week seems too much to me, but then to get into the industry people start out working for free anyway, you'd have thought companies like EA and Activision would have better employee policies rather than coming across as sweat shops with degree workers.

  • evilyoda861

    Posted Jul 22, 2006 7:26 pm PT

    Who really cares. Activision hasn't made a game that I really care for anyways have never made a solid Star Trek game anyways I could care less if they lose millions or not, since I myself dont have that kind of money to take from people.

  • Talgrath

    Posted Jul 22, 2006 6:06 pm PT

    A shareholder and an employee declaring lawsuits against Activision in the same week? Looks like the disgruntled just declared a called shot to the nuts against Activision. While the first lawsuit sounds hard to prove, this one might have a bit more merit; it's well known that the industry has a problem with unpaid overtime. It will be interesting to see what happens..

  • nappan

    Posted Jul 22, 2006 3:41 pm PT

    I'm interested to see if this case has merit. I really don't know enough about this issue as it stands, but if developers are getting the shaft, it's certainly something that needs to be rectified. Given how much money games make now, it would be inexcusable for companies, especially big houses like activision to be shortsheeting their developers. That said, maybe they're not. Isn't it swell that civil suits are a matter of the public record?

  • rokkuman09

    Posted Jul 22, 2006 9:57 am PT

    That's not right! Just hope you don't get Jack Thompson in there..... video games made Activision not pay them for the amount they worked

  • The_Weekend

    Posted Jul 22, 2006 6:22 am PT

    well, coming from activision ... i expected better treatment ... can't wait to hear other companies ... especially microsoft!

  • GMAN32X

    Posted Jul 22, 2006 5:18 am PT

    evilmonkey998: I'm sure you would be pretty ticked off if you were not paid for the actual amount of work that you put in. It seems that working for Videogame developers/publishers is starting to lose its luster...

  • mrblah00

    Posted Jul 21, 2006 9:27 pm PT

    game developers everywhere are jumping up and down for this (the people that actually make the game, not the corporate buisness men who only care about stocks). Once activision gets nailed for millions more than what they should have paid in the first place, other companies will probably shape up to avoid a similair fate. The creative industry is plagued by unpaid overtime.

  • comthitnuong

    Posted Jul 21, 2006 1:56 pm PT

    i guess i would be pissed if i didnt get paid well for overtime

  • i_love_my_ds

    Posted Jul 21, 2006 9:23 am PT

    she's probably gonna lose

  • damagooon

    Posted Jul 21, 2006 9:01 am PT

    lawsuits are the newest fad.

  • wire-dj

    Posted Jul 21, 2006 4:55 am PT

    I bet their CEO and Presidents never have a wrong paycheck nor do they bounce

  • Hellisunreal

    Posted Jul 21, 2006 3:18 am PT

    These guyz need to treat people like people. All this talk of next gen games being expensive, is cuz ppl need 2 be given their time off from working. But these publishers tell us that & don give these guyz any time off, so they can make a big profit. This is not right

  • dn3datomiced

    Posted Jul 21, 2006 12:47 am PT

    What the hell is wrong with 2K? From all I've heard, they're just fine.

  • nintendorocks

    Posted Jul 21, 2006 12:11 am PT

    This is the second law suit filed against Activision this week! Activision is in some deep trouble.

  • messin18

    Posted Jul 20, 2006 9:19 pm PT

    No 2k pays their employees overtime.

  • gamer_10001

    Posted Jul 20, 2006 8:10 pm PT

    Activision: the next 2K.
    Hope they win, but they probably won't.

  • fenriz275

    Posted Jul 20, 2006 7:49 pm PT

    This is a practice that's restricted to game companies. Lots of companies try to skirt the law when it comes to labor practices.

  • messin18

    Posted Jul 20, 2006 6:04 pm PT

    If you arn't interested in Industry news don't read this section you tool.

    Glad to see Activision getting their asses in court. Overtime laws are very clear and it's ridiculouse that companies just ignore it.

  • gundamwing

    Posted Jul 20, 2006 6:00 pm PT

    idk seems pretty legit to report on the game industry. it lets us know how their employees are treated obiviously.

  • allmont

    Posted Jul 20, 2006 5:45 pm PT

    [This message was deleted at the request of a moderator or administrator]

  • evilmonkey998

    Posted Jul 20, 2006 5:39 pm PT

    I bet a few hundred lawyers are jumping up and down for this

  • Blazer88

    Posted Jul 20, 2006 5:36 pm PT

    Lawsuits,...yay!

  • evilmonkey998

    Posted Jul 20, 2006 5:34 pm PT

    Who cares about this except people that work ther

  • Braighter

    Posted Jul 20, 2006 5:33 pm PT

    Hmm, litigation...how exciting....*yawn*

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